...the company I work with.
Obsidian is known for supporting authentic leaders working transparently for the global common good:
- We help them refine and clarify their messages and deliver inspiring communication and sustainable models for learning.
- We help them develop and engage people and build new competencies so their organizations can move differently and successfully in the changing cultural landscape.
- We help them see the possibilities for their own teams by providing a working example of a sustainably connected and collaborative organization.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Rioting Monks?
Hey, what's going on with the rioting monks? I feel myself wanting to say, "Hey, you guys are monks! What's up with that?" But instead I am feeling their strain and their pain and wondering how we might be able to collectively stay focused on the potential for good.
I absolutely believe in the critical importance of maintaining a positive future vision. But in the midst of where I live and the onslaught of bad news, I sometimes find it difficult to stay with the positive. The last couple of days I have battled a bit. I wonder how to stay awake and stay positive at the same time. I am not talking about that kind of positive where we don't really acknowledge the painful truth of our situation. I am talking about a simultaneous holding of a visceral knowing of the truth that what we are doing isn't working and holding a positive vision of our collective ability to heal it.
And if someone walks around in the world holding both this knowing and this vision, what does it look like when the person shares these knowings with someone else. One of the people in my class suggested that in some cases this sharing may not even require speech.
I absolutely believe in the critical importance of maintaining a positive future vision. But in the midst of where I live and the onslaught of bad news, I sometimes find it difficult to stay with the positive. The last couple of days I have battled a bit. I wonder how to stay awake and stay positive at the same time. I am not talking about that kind of positive where we don't really acknowledge the painful truth of our situation. I am talking about a simultaneous holding of a visceral knowing of the truth that what we are doing isn't working and holding a positive vision of our collective ability to heal it.
And if someone walks around in the world holding both this knowing and this vision, what does it look like when the person shares these knowings with someone else. One of the people in my class suggested that in some cases this sharing may not even require speech.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Learning about Landfills and Wetlands
These blogs are the kinds of things our customer is trying to figure out how to respond to:
http://www.noexpansion.org/
Now, the problem is only partly that this company wants to make more money every year, regardless of what it means to this little guy.
The rest of the problem is that we are generating enough garbage in the US alone to make this company number 181 in the Fortune 500 with $13 Billion in revenues.
Here is the story of why.
My suburban neighborhood (in the Houston city limits) doesn't even pick up recycling. So I drove my recycling to the recycling dumpster-sized containers at the HEB grocery store down the road. Last time I went there, the containers were overflowing with recyclables because the pick up wasn't being regularly enough attended to. This time the containers were gone.
http://www.noexpansion.org/
Now, the problem is only partly that this company wants to make more money every year, regardless of what it means to this little guy.
The rest of the problem is that we are generating enough garbage in the US alone to make this company number 181 in the Fortune 500 with $13 Billion in revenues. Here is the story of why.
My suburban neighborhood (in the Houston city limits) doesn't even pick up recycling. So I drove my recycling to the recycling dumpster-sized containers at the HEB grocery store down the road. Last time I went there, the containers were overflowing with recyclables because the pick up wasn't being regularly enough attended to. This time the containers were gone.
It is Cold there But...
Sentences from today's news...
Beachcombing is a popular activity in remote western Alaska. Among the recent discoveries was a sail boat that washed onto shore last October.
"It's kind of a sport. It keeps us occupied. It's one of the pleasures of living here," Brandell said of the village reachable only by plane or boat that is too small to have its own store.
Strange and Hopeful Things in the City
I took this picture with my stupid PDA phone outside the building of the company mentioned in my previous post. This art sneaked in on the back of a street sign. The bird is a mosaic of city images. It feels right to me.
The painful irony of my life: an interlude.
Just a quick check in to let you all know the obvious: I am struggling...struggling to keep up in my life--and only occasionally having the luxury of any time to even begin trying to get caught up in this course. Also, I have emotional "issues" (I actually remember a time when the word "issues" did not mean problems) associated with the cognitive-emotional dissonance of my work.
Anyway, here is a snapshot. Our company is designing two workshops for an offsite meeting for a very large US company that manages waste and landfills. Here are the two topics: (1) generating awareness of the new green and sustainable service offering and (2) what Community Relations people need to do in order to get municipal and county approvals for new landfills and for expansions of existing landfills.
Kill me. Please. No, I am serious.
This has been absolutely gut wrenching. We really didn't understand fully what this project was when we developed the proposal. And we don't get to do (1) without also doing (2). And (2) is as bad as anything you might imagine (campaign donations, spin, "partnering" with "powerbrokers," etc.). We will close the doors before I will ever do another project with anything that stinks as badly to me as this. My partner, Kimberley, goes from railing against "the man" (so to speak) and trying to prop me up by telling me that there must be a reason we are in this thing--that we need to understand how this works from the inside. But I am sick, tired, and heartbroken right now.
Anyway, here is a snapshot. Our company is designing two workshops for an offsite meeting for a very large US company that manages waste and landfills. Here are the two topics: (1) generating awareness of the new green and sustainable service offering and (2) what Community Relations people need to do in order to get municipal and county approvals for new landfills and for expansions of existing landfills.
Kill me. Please. No, I am serious.
This has been absolutely gut wrenching. We really didn't understand fully what this project was when we developed the proposal. And we don't get to do (1) without also doing (2). And (2) is as bad as anything you might imagine (campaign donations, spin, "partnering" with "powerbrokers," etc.). We will close the doors before I will ever do another project with anything that stinks as badly to me as this. My partner, Kimberley, goes from railing against "the man" (so to speak) and trying to prop me up by telling me that there must be a reason we are in this thing--that we need to understand how this works from the inside. But I am sick, tired, and heartbroken right now.
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